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STORY: Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake took to the Paris catwalk on Friday (February 28) to present its innovative yet down-to-earth ready-to-wear autumn/winter collection for 2014.
The French capital's Tuileries Garden, where the show took place, was transformed into an Oriental woodland, with an ethereal performance from Japanese musicians Ei Wada and Chiyako.
The audience was treated to a surprise when the models, each with their hair pulled tightly back in an eastern-inspired bun, opened their handbags to pull out a pleated dress for the opening of the show.
Curved pleats on cape-like jackets evoked images of the long cycle of growth etched out in a tree's growth rings.
Layered printing and multicolored patterns conjured images of leafy forests, where trees and foliage overlap.
Autumnal woodland colors burst onto the catwalk, with golden-orange trousers, crimson jackets and bronze dresses.
Issey Miyake's collection also made use of a newly developed technique, unique to the fashion house and known as '3D Steam Stretch'.
Stretchable thread both vertically and horizontally in the weave is used, allowing the fabric to be stretched or shrunk in any direction.

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